Impact of aging on the society
Aging is a structural shift in demographics that is characteristic both for the West and for other developed countries. By 2050, the global population of older persons is expected to more than double its size in 2015, reaching nearly 2.1 billion (United Nations, 2015). Countries with a prevailing number of older people may come to a slowdown in aggregate growth GDP or even stagnation. Economists are expressing primary concern on this rapid demographic change. According to Bloom (2019), these worries relate to the prospect of workforce shortages as retirees come to outnumber new entrants to the workforce.
Bloom (2019) predicts asset market meltdowns and a drop in the savings rate as older people liquidate their assets and spend the money to support themselves in old age. Similarly, the governments will be forced to implement costly pension and retirement schemes, and provide excellent health care to support the older generation. Refusal from the taxpayers to pay for the seniors in favor of more reliable funded programs can lead to political instability. Governments may experience pressure from the societies to limit state freedom in costs and tax burden.
Different forms of innovation
The term “innovation” was first used in the nineteenth century. “Innovation” can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field (Webster, 1963). Mainly there are three forms of innovation that companies use in their business.
The first form is the product innovation, which requires the entire development of certain goods, needs an improvement of how the product performs, and recommends the addition of a new feature to an already existing item. (Feldman & Florida, 1994) Another form is the process innovation, which includes the improvement of the technology or resources used in the manufacture. It combines several categories, such as tools, equipment, and delivery system. Finally, the last form is business model innovation, which requires risky and challenging measures. The business constantly has to adapt to the needs of its customers, ensure that their services are the best on the market, and adjust to the latest technological advancements.
U.S universities’ engagement in research
Universities’ engagement in a considerable share of research is associated with the commercialization of its developments. The US occupies one of the leading positions among the nations of the world in the field of transfer of knowledge and technologies from scientific and educational institutions to society and business (Weerts, 2020). A rough estimate of university income from all types of commercialization accumulates grants and custom research and development under contracts with federal agencies and private companies. At the most successful US universities, for instance, Stanford University in California, the research budget could be close to $ 1 billion a year (Research at Stanford, 2019).
Surprisingly, in this case, the US government does not prioritize profitability but values a policy of social benefit. The US helps as many new types of research and technologies as possible to break through the conditions of fierce market competition and become useful and accessible to people. It definitely is a good thing that universities conduct researches in the United States because, most of the time, the government invests money and helps researchers to carry out their studies.
Government’s role in fostering research
As previously stated, the government, along with private corporations, plays a significant role in fostering innovation and education. Federal agencies foster some researchers and their projects to their commercial use, which brings benefits not only to the researchers but to the government as well. The funding of university research in the United States, as in almost all countries of the world, is a seemingly financially unprofitable activity that spends a lot of public and private funds.
However, the US government has its own goals when funding researches: providing new jobs and workplaces, optimization of the manufacturing of goods and services, and implementation of new high-tech devices. The acceleration of scientific and technological progress, encouragement of young people to engage in science and business, and improving people’s living standards are also on the government’s agenda (Carayannis, Cherepovitsyn, Ilinova, 2016). These mentioned factors are necessary components of progress and development, and reasons why the US funds science in hopes of a brighter future.
The reason why larger corporations conduct research
It was said above that a substantial part of the budgets of American universities is the research budget, i.e., research commissioned by federal agencies and large private companies. This is determined by the fact that it is cheaper for more prominent private companies to finance the scientific research they need in a university environment than to buy their results from other private companies with the necessary capabilities, or to build their laboratories.
A striking example is Google – a spin-off company at Stanford University, which brought a lot of money to its alma mater. Such situations are infrequent, and, usually, this is a short-lived joy since the income from the profitable sale of a license for new promising technology has been received on several years only, and then the technology becomes obsolete. Most of the researches require proper funding, and many smaller companies cannot afford this luxury. The expenses go up to several millions of dollars, which is not a sustainable investment of a business that has no such amount to pay.
References
United Nations. (2015). Ageing. Web.
Bloom D. E. (Ed.). (2019). Live Long and Prosper? The Economics of Ageing Populations. Web.
Carayannis, E. G., Cherepovitsyn, A. Y., & Ilinova, A. A. (2016). Technology commercialization in entrepreneurial universities: The US and Russian experience. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 41(5), 1135–1147. Web.
Feldman, M. P., & Florida, R. (1994). The Geographic Sources of Innovation: Technological Infrastructure and Product Innovation in the United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84(2), 210–229. Web.
Webster, N. (1963). New collegiate dictionary. A Merriam-Webster. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co.
Research at Stanford. (2019). Web.
Weerts, D. J. (2020). State Governments And Research Universities: A framework for a renewed partnership. Oxfordshire: Routledge.